An investigative report published by a national daily (not National Mirror) last April, which revealed that ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, former Vice-President Namadi Sambo, non-returning federal lawmakers, ministers and presidential aides would coast home with N3.24 billion as severance allowances drew public ire. Many viewed the package as unduly bloated. Packaged by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Jonathan was entitled to 300 percent of his annual basic salary of N3, 514,705, which translated to a severance allowance of N10, 544,115; in addition to his other constitutional entitlements as a former head of government.
For Sambo on an annual basic salary of N3, 031,572.50, he would smile home with N9, 094,717.50. Roughly 76 senators not returning to the National Assembly would earn N462, 019,200 or N6, 079,200 each, while 290 House of Representatives’ members not returning would earn N5, 955,637.50 each, totalling N1, 727,134,875. The nation’s 42 ministers/ministers of state would collect a total of N253, 967,212.5 (N6, 079,200 each for senior ministers and N5, 872,740 each for ministers of state), while special advisers, senior special assistants and special assistants to the former president would share N775, 207,125 at the rate of N5, 828,625 each.
In response to the publication, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) described the terminal benefits as sacrilegious and “unacceptable in an economy where civil servants who served the country for 35 years or attained the age of 60 years are not paid any gratuity after service”. The group prayed the Muhammadu Buhari administration to ensure that the beneficiaries returned the money to the nation’s coffers. Indeed, virtually all Nigerians who commented on the subject condemned the basis for the rather obscene largesse, considering the nation’s present economic predicament and the fact that while in office, the beneficiaries earned salaries and allowances considered as unreasonable, to the point that the clamour for cutting the remunerations is still raging.
Critics have, however, traced the embarrassment to RMAFC’s imprudent discretion and recommendations since the nation returned to democratic rule in 1999. One recent report, for instance, highlighted that about 2008, at a time when many professors who retired before the year 2000 were earning N1, 300 each as monthly pension, RMAFC recommended that Special Advisers should be paid N16 million each per annum. It was about the time the commission allocated N14.4 billion (N200 million each) as severance pay to governors who served two complete terms. Vehicle loan for elected officers was 400 per cent of their basic annual salaries repayable in six years, despite the fact that they spend four years in office. As far back as 1999, Senators and members of the House of Representatives reportedly pocketed N5 million and N4 million each rspectively as furniture allowance.
Following the caustic criticism the profligacy generated, one of RMAFC’s commissioners, Mr. Emmanuel Nnamani, was quoted as saying: “It is true that we have increased the salaries and remuneration packages in line with our mandate. But we did not increase (them) on the basis of percentage. The whole increase was done across the board for political officers, lawmakers and judicial officers. The increase has also taken effect because it has been approved accordingly…. what we have done is to review the remuneration packages of these officers in line with the present realities…”
What a provocative and insulting response by the commission at the time, as it still is today, in a country where over half of the estimated 170 million population lives below the poverty line of less than $1 (N120 or less) a day; where many states cannot pay N18,000 as minimum wage and governments renege on agreements with workers; where pensioners who toiled for the nation throughout their productive years die in queues while waiting for handouts called pensions; where public infrastructure is decrepit, where electricity supply is most unstable – indeed, the list is endless?
RMFAC, an agency which former President Olusegun Obasanjo accused of showing more interest in revenue sharing than mobilization, has in no small measure contributed to the bloated cost of governance that is gradually sinking the nation, especially nonviable states. Its reckless patronage of the political class with unspeakable remunerations is also the root of do-or-die politics in the country. The trend is an unsustainable bazaar the new administration of Muhammadu Buhari should quickly put an end to in the interest of the majority of Nigerian s. The commission and its membership seem overly politicised to the detriment of Nigeria and her citizens.
